Becoming Student Loan Free Through Public Service Loan Forgiveness

I’M STUDENT LOAN-FREE—PRAISE THE LORD!

Yep, you heard that right. Student loan-free! No student loans exist in my name anymore, and for that, I am incredibly thankful.

This post is dedicated to my mom, my mom has always encouraged me and made me feel like I can truly do anything that I set my mind to. I remember when I got my first job after graduate school. I didn’t feel like it was “prestigious” or “high-paying” enough for someone with my credentials. I had a mini-breakdown and cried on the phone expressing to my mom that I didn’t think I was successful. I told her that I went to school for all those years just to get a “low-paying job”. My mom affirmed me and let me know that I was indeed successful and that job was just the first step. She said that even if I didn’t do anything else I’ve already accomplished so much and she was proud of me.

I am forever grateful that God chose her to be my mom. A caring, selfless, and kind woman who has always had my back. Even now as an adult, she looks out for me so much. I continue to work hard for her and try my best to pay her back for everything she’s done for me over the years. I love you, mama!

–

Yep, I’m student loan free. This isn’t a milestone I take lightly. It’s taken years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance to get here. A few years ago, I paid off about $13K in private student loans. Then, I shifted my focus to building my career in the non-profit world while contributing my time toward qualifying for federal student loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. In this post, I’m sharing every single step I took to successfully set myself up for PSLF.

Student loans are a burden that impacts millions of borrowers across the country—many of them millennials and people of color. How we got here is a long story, and I encourage you to do your research. But one thing is clear: something needs to change. Americans deserve better. 

Before we get into it, I must say that I don’t know what’s going to happen to PSLF in the future, but if you still want to pursue loan forgiveness through this program, follow the steps as written on the Federal Student Aid website, and you should be good to go.

My Story

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree as a first-generation college student from South Carolina. I honestly didn’t know much about debt and borrowing when I went to college but I still did my best to suppress the amount of loans that I needed. I applied and received several scholarships, I completed work-studies during college and graduate school, I stayed in reasonably priced dorms and my mom even made interest payments on my student loans (shout out to her).

Still in so, I graduated with an enormous amount of debt to the tune of $77K in federal student loans and $13k in private student loans. Although this amount was massive, I knew that I wasn’t taking that debt to the grave. I believe in demolishing debt by any means necessary, so something had to be done.

I had two options:

1. Find a high-paying corporate job and aggressively pay off my loans.
2. Build a career in the non-profit/public service sector and aim for PSLF.

I chose the second route. Well, it chose me.

I didn’t get any offers for a “high-paying corporate” job so I had to do what I had to do. I got a job offer for a state job in 2014 and over the past 10 years, I’m proud to share that I’ve tripled my income, grown in my career in the public health/non-profit space, and officially achieved PSLF.

How I Achieved PSLF

Here’s the exact roadmap I followed:

Consolidate all federal student loans

• Before I made my first student loan payment, I consolidated all my federal loans into one large loan. I figured that would make payments and forgiveness more seamless since I would be focused on one loan and not multiple. At the time, I had several small loans with varying interest rates. (Note: I’m talking about federal student loans. Private loans are a different story and I’m not discussing them at all in this post. Do not consolidate your loans without knowing the facts about the type of loans that you have.) 

Find a qualifying non-profit or public service job

• Look into non-profit hospitals, foundations, not-for-profit colleges, think tanks, and state/federal jobs. Some, not all public service jobs actually pay pretty well and offer great benefits. 

Request to end forbearance and start payments

• The scary part! I know but the sooner you start paying the closer you’ll be to forgiveness. Time in forbearance does not count toward PSLF. As soon as I graduated and found a job I asked to end forbearance and start payments.

Set up an income-driven payment plan through your servicer.

• Make sure you choose one that allows you to qualify for PSLF. Over the years my payments have ranged from $25 to $400. During COVID-19, payments were not required and that time still counted! If you want to be sure you are on the right track,  I would suggest calling to speak to someone at Federal Student Aid. I did so several times during my journey.

Certify employment annually

• Go through the PSLF Help Tool and generate an employment certification form. Get your employment certified every year through your job’s HR department. If you switch jobs, get it certified again. Keep up with your time on the loan service website and don’t allow unexplained gaps to occur on your account.

Make payments as scheduled

• Stay consistent with your monthly payments. I would suggest placing these on auto-pay. Remember if you don’t pay a month, that time doesn’t count. 

Recertify your income-driven plan annually

• Important, you must certify your income annually to keep your income-driven plan. They will use your prior year’s tax return to determine your payment amount. If you’re married, consult a tax professional on whether to file jointly or separately. 

Continue to do all this for 10 years or 120 payments

• Patience and persistence are key!

Submit final documentation

• After you make your final payment you should have the option to use the PSLF help tool to verify employment again as well as submit the official PSLF application. You’ll also be asked if you want to enter into forbearance for PSLF purposes. Say yes! Bonus: You may receive a check back if you go over 120 months. My payment calculator was off by about one month and now I’m getting a refund for overpayment (yay me!)

Play the waiting game

• It takes some time for them to process these. For some people, it takes months. For me, it took about 4-6 weeks after submitting the PSLF application, before  I received an official email saying my loans were forgiven and my account balance was ZERO!! In this letter, they said that they would alert the credit bureaus of the closure of debt. At the time of writing this, they haven’t been removed from my credit report yet but I’m thinking that it will happen in the next month or so.

Once your loans are forgiven, CELEBRATE!! Personally, I’ll be celebrating for quite some time. It took 10 years to get here so please believe I shall rejoice anytime I get a chance to!

Good luck with the process! I am an open book so just comment below if you have any questions.